Insurers Sued for Harassment Suit
Reimbursement

The Nashville City Paper reports that in the suit
Cracker Barrel accuses the Cincinnati Insurance Company
and the Houston Casualty Company of breaching their
contracts with the store by not honoring insurance policy
obligations. The complaint says repeated requests for
reimbursement for defense and indemnification related to
the harassment suit have been denied, according to the
news report.

Last March Cracker Barrel agreed to a $2 million
settlement with 51 former and current employees from
three different worksites who said they were either
sexually or racially harassed (See
Cracker Barrel Agrees to $2M
Settlement
). The harassment suit, filed in 2004 by the Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission, alleged that, as early
as 1998, female plaintiffs were subjected to pornographic
photographs and cartoons, obscene jokes, sexual
propositions, groping, and sexual assaults and black
plaintiffs were subjected to racially-charged language
from coworkers and managers.

Cracker Barrel says it repeatedly consulted with
the insurance carriers before agreeing to the settlement.
The suit says the insurance policies were designed to
protect it against monetary losses due to employment
lawsuits.